Durban: Pyeongchang of South Korea won the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics on Wednesday, comprehensively winning a vote by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over rivals Munich of Germany and France's Annecy.
IOC President Jacques Rogge announced Pyeongchang's victory at the IOC's session in Durban. It will be the first time a Korean city has staged the Winter Games and only the third time it will have been held in Asia.
"This is one of the happiest days for our country, our people and millions of youth dreaming of winter sport," Pyeongchang bid chief Cho Yang-ho told Reuters seconds after the announcement.
The Pyeongchang delegation in Durban cheered and chanted "Korea, Korea" after Rogge announced the decision.
Pyeongchang narrowly missed victory in each of the last two Winter Olympic votes, losing out to Vancouver of Canada for the 2010 Games and to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi for 2014.
Each time they had led on the first round of voting by IOC members but failed to gain an overall majority and lost out on the second round.
On Wednesday they won outright on the first round and avoided suffering the same fate for the third time.
The Koreans put in a determined bid, stressing their virtues of perseverance and patience, and employed their country's President Lee Mying-bak and Olympic women's figure skating champion Kim Yuna to persuade and charm the IOC.
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